Morris was 49 when he crossed ‘the river of fire’ and became a revolutionary socialist. He’d always felt uneasy about the disparity between his comfortable lifestyle and the conditions endured by most of the British working class. Now he worked to overthrow the system that enabled the rich to profit from their labour, going on marches, founding newspapers and lecturing all over the country.
Burne-Jones designed the image of Adam and Eve for Morris’s book A Dream of John Ball, about a priest who was one of the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. Ball believed all people were created equal, asking ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?’
Morris’s political activities shocked many of his friends, but he didn’t see campaigning as incompatible with his design work. He deeply regretted that his products were so expensive, and wanted to create a society where everyone lived comfortably in beautiful surroundings.
